Word 2003 Freeze problem, Word freezes when I click "Save as" Options

[bc1sjw]

Just a slight niggling problem I am having with Word:

It basically freezes when I try to save a document. When the "save as" window appears, the minute I click on it Word auto freezes. This happens regardless of whether I try to enter the file name, change the folder location, the file format, or even just click on the centre of the window.

After about 30 seconds it unfreezes and I can save, and re-save as normal.....

Anybody have any suggestions? I've tried detect and repair in the help menu, and also repair office from Control Panel but neither of these have worked.

I read elsewhere online that Word freezes may be something to do with a Registry problem, and a sequence is shown on how to fix this, but i dont like tampering with the Registry. Another option given was to fully uninstall office and reinstall it, but i also dont want to do this and lose all my settings (plus you also have to delete several registry keys to make the uninstall complete.)

As far as I know all my patches and updates are correct - although i could check again.

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated - its not a big problem, i can live with it....but i hate sitting there waiting for it to unfreeze!